


New Years Kith

by Annie_Lacus



Category: Purple Hyacinth - Ephemerys & Sophism (Webcomic)
Genre: Angst, Apologies, Canon Compliant, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, Kiss Kiss Fall in Love, One Shot, Purple Hyacinth Season 01-02 Hiatus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-13 20:54:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29159997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annie_Lacus/pseuds/Annie_Lacus
Summary: One shot taking place after episode 83- not really any spoilers...since this is entirely fictitious. Just some fake driftwood for this Lauki ship and my empty heart. Lauren and Kieran keeping up with New Years tradition ;)
Relationships: Lauren Sinclair & Kieran White, Lauren Sinclair/Kieran White
Comments: 3
Kudos: 67





	New Years Kith

**Author's Note:**

> Hej. Please enjoy this canon one shot of Lauki, doing what we all want them to do. 
> 
> I'm sorry for those that are stuck with the spice filled ending of Order of The Purple Hyacinth- thanks for all the hits it was a total surprise and I'm so happy some people liked it! But unfortunately that ff is fin. 
> 
> maybe. now that I'm thinking about it I have some ideas. stay tuned folks.

“Hey, Kieran,” she asked eyebrows furrowed and albeit a little exhausted, “where are you going?” 

Kieran turned, his face and figure cast down by bright moonlight. 

“Home.” he said with a small smile. 

Lauren walked nearer to him, chuckling to herself, “Sorry about Kym,” she said gazing out the pub doors at the street beyond, “She is a bit much, and worse around those she likes.” she said, cocking her eye at him. 

Kieran laughed quietly, choosing to gaze with her. He couldn’t help but feel a pang in his chest at the word ‘like’ he knew it was a simple flirtation, and that Kym was harmless in her intentions. It was her association with Lauren that scared him, how he had made her a promise. And his departure home was much less a feat of a long night and more a feat of a tormented mind. However much he hated to admit it, he enjoyed the precinct's company, and assassins didn’t enjoy anything. 

Her voice broke his reverie. 

“Well?” she asked

He spun to look at her, “Well what?” 

“Can I walk with you?” she asked cautiously, “You weren’t lying when you said ‘home’ so I’m assuming there will be no special detours.” 

He smiled, “Sure.”

Lauren, shocked by his willingness, went to grab her coat, and waved a hand at Will and the lifeless Kym in his arms. 

She fell into step next to Kieran, happy for a person who actually walked her pace. They said very little on their jaunt home, opting to admire the warm pubs and the drunken faces that inhabited them. 

Kieran stopped suddenly as they rounded a corner, his face upturned at the steeple of a church. 

Lauren noticed his rigid posture, “Feeling the urge to confess your sins?” 

Kierans' expression did not change, “The amount of Hail Mary’s would last me a lifetime I’m afraid.” he said somberly, his face turned down at his shoes hitting the cobblestone. 

She looked at his face as they walked, his neck was tense, eyes squinted, mouth in a straight line, his jaw popping. 

“You don’t have to answer, but does that church have any particular significance to you?” she asked softly. 

He took a deep breath, his eyes switching up to the sky, “A personal question officer?” he quipped, eye brows rose in her direction. His aloof and sarcastic veil was back up to her dismay.

“Yes.” she said simply. 

He paused a moment looking back at the church, “I-it-yes,” he said walking again, “I don’t like talking about that one.” 

She caught up to him, a million thoughts swimming in her head, filing through all the instances of a murder at that specific church, but her memory coming up short. 

“Why not?” she asked, “I have no recollection of a crime happening at that church.” she said. 

He looked down again, “You’d be too young to remember.” he said quietly. 

She closed her mouth at that, letting the silence fall between them for a few more blocks. 

She walked a few paces behind him, imagining herself as an invisible bystander or detective following the great Purple Hyacinth. She remembered what she thought of him, albeit a phantom, before they had crossed swords. The Purple Hyacinth was ruthless, emotionless, a figure of power, a sadist, and one who killed for his own amusement. She remembered the thrill of potentially finding the Purple Hyacinth, the elation to put him in chains and persecute him to a life of misery. The recognition she might be rewarded with, and how she might get a raise. She thought he was a monster, plain and simple, before she actually met him. Looking at him now, his head hung, body sore, feet seemingly dragging, and his form decorated in a pale coat and bifocals, the clothing an attempt to fit in, she couldn't help but feel different.

Unfortunately for her imagination, he looked rather human. 

She could see his apartment up ahead, “Kieran I’m sorry.” she said hurriedly. 

He stopped, his gaze slowly upturned to her face- a painting of confusion and anguish.

She came closer, wanting to discern his expressions. 

“For what?” he asked quietly. 

“For saying what I said… in the cave, I mean.”  
His eyebrows furrowed and he began towards his door, “You are a fool if you apologize for that, you were right Lauren, however much I may not want to see it, you are right.” 

She grabbed his arm pulling him back, he sucked in sharply at her sudden touch. 

“Don’t deflect my apology like you haven’t been waiting for some kind of release for what happened that night.” she said sternly. 

“Some kind of release?” he said, baffled. “I don’t get a release, Lauren, I choked you, I hurt you- I may have killed countless guilty people, but I hurt a friend, and if the mass murders don’t make me a monster then that does.” he said turning away from her again. 

“You’re human Kieran,” she said a bit louder, stopping him again, “And to be human is to err.” Her own voice sounded unconvincing, pleading almost. 

“Oh don’t give me that rubbish, it wasn’t an error Lauren,” he said angrily, “It was a premeditated act against you- it was intentional!” he yelled out of frustration, “And I know you know that,” he said. “So don’t you dare apologize. I know when you touched my hand the other day that you felt it, just as I did. You felt that fear rise up in you, I saw you brush your neck. That memory is as fresh in your mind as it is in mine.” he said now looking at her in the eyes, blue iris’s cutting through gold. 

“Kie-” 

“No. And your pity I don’t need it. Frankly I don’t know what’s come over you,” He said stepping closer to her, “You have blamed me and shunned me, as you rightfully should. But for some reason your cold demeanor towards me is gone in this moment, and I can only assume it’s out of pity for me, so believe me when I say I don’t want it, I am guilty in this Lauren and you cannot change my mind.” he said, not a trace of lie within his words. 

“Fine,” she said harshly. “But we have a month, Kieran. We have a month before this city and its people are turned to ashes again.” 

At that he looked back at her. 

“Maybe I still feel your hands around my neck and you still feel guilt for it, but the fact of the matter is, it’s up to you and I. We are the only ones who know and we are the only ones who can prevent this. We are the only ones who can end this cycle of torture, and our time is running out. And I would rather have you not sulking in my presence when we do end it.” her voice puncturing whatever defenses he laid between them. 

“And I’m apologizing because even after everything I have done to you and you to me, I cannot rid myself of the fact that I need you for this.” she said, her voice catching in her throat.

Laurens jaw clenched tightly at her own words- it was something she had been thinking about for a long time. However much she might dislike him she could not stop the feeling that he was her only way to some kind of solution, to finding Dylan, answers to her parents death. 

Monstrous and murderous as he was, he gave her hope. 

His face had fallen to an expression near sadness. He was close to her already, and he peered down as she hung her head, for maybe the first time in his presence Lauren cried. 

In a moment of utter courage he tipped her chin up with his fingers, meeting her eyes. A shivered passed through the both of them, a familiar feeling creeping up their spines. He swallowed hard, quickly brushing away a tear that had formed on the edge of her eye. She looked away from him then, attempting to retain her cool indifference. 

“Your mere willingness to work, let alone speak to me again, means more than any apology. I-if we do this,” he said, finding his own breath scarce. “If we find the nitroglycerine and prevent this, I mean Gods even if we delay it, I will not sulk beside you out of seasoned guilt. You have given me purpose Ms.Sinclair, you have given me reason to rise every morning, your existence and alliance with me, however much you might disdain it, is enough to keep me going.” 

She was left speechless, his words weren’t aloof, or sarcastic, or lies and that’s what shocked her most. In an attempt to discredit his own words she searched his face fervently, pulling back from his hand she crossed her arms around her chest, a small prevention from the cold. 

She sniffled, “So if I need a hand up from a tall building, or if I break an ankle from falling you’ll be able to touch me without some kind of remorse.” she asked, her chin tilted up. 

He chuckled and stepped towards her again, reaching out and grabbing her hand in his. He mulled it over in his palm, caressing his thumb in gentle circles around her knuckles. He spoke softly, his warm breath twitching her loose strands of hair, “I already said it does not matter how I feel,” he looked down longingly at her hand in his, “only how this feels to you.” He looked her in the eye, her hand still in his. Their attention was suddenly ripped away to the deep bellow of church bells ringing. Their eyes fixed on some high faraway place. 

“Happy new year.” her voice, unnerved. The bells blasted through her bones, searing her nerves and setting her worries on a constant loop. The realization of how little time they had left made her hand unconsciously tightening around Kierans, pulling him closer.

“Ren, look at me.” he whispered. 

At the sound of her long forgotten name she raised her eyes to his, slow and unwilling braced for coldness or resentment. To her surprise his gaze was fixed on hers, the ocean in his eyes calm and earnest beneath the stray strands of black hair, and removed of all their usual angry and aloof distance. Instead they seemed clear for the first time in ages, and full of something like wanting. More than that, it was a tenderness she had never seen in Kieran before, a plea in his eyes she had never associated with someone of his kind. That more than anything else stopped her protest as he raised his hand to cup her cheek. 

He was being so gentle, to a point that she could feel the restraint all along his body. Despite the reaction he charged, she couldn’t bring herself to move, she was entranced by the way his mouth moved nearer to hers, the way his breath warmed her skin- and her knees almost collapsing when they touched. 

His lips were soft, his mouth against hers deliberate and unhurried, his hand tightened slightly on her face, his fingers lightly traveling into the beginnings of her hair. Lauren, floored by the possibility of ever kissing Kieran, closed her eyes and allowed herself to revel in the feeling. At her response Kieran released an enormous sigh against her lips and reached around with his free hand to press against the small of her back pulling her closer. Lauren reached to cup the back of his neck, to tangle her fingers in the dark waves of his hair and to feel his pulse against her, urging him on with the small grapplings of her fingertips.

Kieran explored her thoroughly, he flicked his tongue across her lips adjusting the angle of his head every so often, the change sending shivers through her entire body. At the feeling she pulled his mouth down against hers more forcefully, her own body melting into his.

He let out a slight groan with the realization that someone who did not care even a bit, could not behave with such brevity as Lauren was now. At that his self control slipped, the kiss was now less an experiment to see how she would react, and more carnal desire- it was how she touched him back that gave him some kind of permission. His hands flattened against her and his kisses turned into urgency- luckily she responded in kinds. She moaned as his tongue touched hers, and his mouth opened up for her own. They grew deeper, they were breathing one another, a melody between them of moans, whimpers, and harshly grabbed clothing. They ached for each other, all the promises, betrayal and hate were whisked away in that moment. 

In between the exchange of lips he whispered her name, barely audible even to her, but enough to make her pause and draw back. Lauren took a ragged breath as she opened her eyes fully. 

He did the same, albeit a little more slowly as if he were waking up from a dream. He looked down at her, her face a mosaic of emotion, he simply smiled, placed a final chaste kiss on her lips and said, “I believe it is tradition to kiss someone on New Year's Day.” 

A flash of pain barraged his face as he let her go, and slowly and quietly entered his home.


End file.
